Jamestown dig uncovers details of first General Assembly meeting spot

It took hammering through 5 inches of modern concrete to discover the completely undisturbed and preserved section of original wall on the western end of what would have been the 1617 church at Jamestown Friday January 25, 2019.

It took hammering through 5 inches of modern concrete to discover the completely undisturbed and preserved section of original wall on the western end of what would have been the 1617 church at Jamestown Friday January 25, 2019.

Jamestown archaeologists have uncovered the western wall of the church that held the first meeting of representative government in North America nearly 400 years ago.

With the discovery, which lay hidden beneath a 5-inch layer of concrete, brick and dirt, the archaeologists know with certainly the full footprint of the 1617 wooden church, the first of several built on the site.

It matches the 20-by-50-foot layout described in historical documents, said David Givens, director of archaeology for Jamestown Rediscovery, on Friday.

Excevations continue on the Jamestown Chruch ahead of the marking of 400th anniversary of the first meeting of represenative democracy in 1619.

(Rob Ostermaier/Daily Press)

“It is the intact wall of the 1617 church where representative government in English North America was held in 1619,” Givens said. “Never been dug, fully intact, right under the concrete. We freaked out. … We pulled it up and we were like what is this brick just sitting here?”

The discovery comes after a two-year dig of the footprint of the site that has held four different sanctuaries: one in 1617, one in the 1640s, another in the 1680s and the present-day Memorial Church erected in 1907 after the first large dig of the site.

The eastern, southern and northern wall foundations — layers of brick and cobblestone — were exposed during that excavation, which wrapped up late last year.

The western wall was found underneath the church tower, the dig of which began this month. Staff worked on slowly chipping away dirt along its brick surface on Friday, a week after it was first uncovered.

Last week, archaeologists first saw a structure there using ground-penetrating radar, a machine that uses radar to make underground images. They could see a wall-like structure, but weren’t exactly sure what it was.

They first had to chip, drill and jackhammer through the concrete above to get to the top brick layer. Measurements from the eastern edge of the church to the new wall confirmed it was the proper 50 feet across, in keeping with the original plans.

It’s a discovery over three decades in the making for architectural historian Carl Lounsbury. He worked for years at Colonial Williamsburg, helping those who sift through the soil connect to what would have been above ground.

“I’ve waited a long time to see this kind of stuff,” Lounsbury said. “It’s very exciting to see this, the west wall of the 1617 church, is intact inside the tower of the late-17th century tower of the brick church. …

“To have this here and to not have been obliterated over the many, many years when it was exposed, or the (Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) was here digging in the beginning of the 20th century, is miraculous.”

The wall sits on the other side of what would have been the original 1607 fort wall. It also is a larger footprint than the 1640s church that later replaced it, implying that the congregation might have gotten smaller by the time the second church was built, Lounsbury said.

The archaeologists will continue to sift through the dirt, bit by bit. Some of it is dark top soil, while other patches are more of a yellow clay left behind from construction in 1617.

Some lighter areas show where trenches would have been dug to help construct the 1617 wall and the walls of the tower, which has not yet been definitively dated.

It’s in those trenches where the dirt may yield new clues as to how and when things were built.

“Someone might have dropped a nice piece of evidence here that can tell you dating,” Lounsbury said, such as tools, pieces of pottery or artifacts of everyday life.

Givens said they expect to wrap up excavations in March in preparation for reopening the church in April. It will serve as a museum exhibit to the original site, down to the wood and brick flooring that archaeological evidence suggests once covered the ground.

A partially reconstructed rail will show the dividing point between the body of the church and the front chancel area. A glass-covered portion of the floor will allow visitors to peek down at the original foundations.

Work in the church and tower coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first meeting of the General Assembly on the site.

It was there in the chancel that Gov. George Yeardley, his four councilors and 22 burgesses chosen by white, male inhabitants of the colony met July 30, 1619, in the first meeting of a representative legislative government in North America.

It’s one of several milestones — the arrival of the first Africans on American soil, the recruitment of English women to the colony, the first Thanksgiving — being commemorated across the state this year.

That anniversary also will be celebrated in July when the present-day General Assembly plans to cram into its original home.

Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, represents Jamestown Island and has been publicizing the 2019 commemoration events on the floor of the General Assembly this session.

“That’s sacred ground. That is the spawning ground of democracy in the western hemisphere,” Mullin said. “… There is nothing more monumental than to be able to celebrate 400 years of a people governing themselves.”